Football, football, football.

My oldest son had a Jr. High game last night. He played quite a bit in the first quarter, but not much after that. He got clobbered on punt coverage because he wasn't aware of ALL of his surroundings and someone (much bigger than him I might add) blind sided him.

It was a painful game to watch. It was like his team didn't want to be there. How do you change that in 7th and 8th graders?

I told him after the game that he got hammered because he didn't have his "head on a swivel". He knew it and we both had a smile on our faces because I knew he knew I was going to say it.

Head on a swivel.

That's a phrase I use a lot. I am trying to drill into my kids. "Head on a swivel" means be aware of all of your surroundings. Know what's going on, not only in your immediate vicinity during a game, but in life. Pay attention. Anticipate what's coming next. Have respect for the people around you. Do things without being told. Too many people in this world walk around with blinders on or their heads in their rectums. I don't want my kids to be like those people.

Tonight we went to the Varsity game in town. Apparently I am a different kind of parent. Perhaps I would have fit in well with Ward and June Cleaver. (June Cleaver. Raaaawr.) I don't let my kids run around and irritate the people at the game. We came to watch the game, so sit down and watch the game. I had a family friend tell me after the game was over that they were impressed how my kids sat and watched the game. That felt good.

The game was a laugher. The visiting team was small, both physically and in numbers. They had a couple of talented players, but our team had many more talented players. The whole family went because my youngest sons got introduced as members of the 5th grade team during the half-time festivities. They were just BEAMING!

Tomorrow they have a 5th grade game at 9:oo am. So it's off to watch them in the morning. There are issues on their team regarding playing time for all of the kids. The boys club says all of the kids should have equal playing time to develop all of the players. As is frequently the case , the coach's kids seem to be allergic to the sidelines and play the whole game. Some of the parents will be logging playing time tomorrow I bet.

After that game it's home to catch Bucky at 11:00, and yard work after that.

I was hoping to cook again this weekend (I smoked some wings last weekend for the Badger game, and they were really good) but I don't know if I will have time.

Then, of course, my beloved Packers play Monday night against the Bears.

Enjoy the weekend everybody. Cheer loud, play fair.

And don't forget to worship The Savior on Sunday!

Time to play a little catch-up!

I've had a cold and felt like crap for the last few days.

September 11th was our hometown festival. Before we got all of the festivities under way the organizers held a brief, solemn memorial to remember what happened that day. When that was done, we got down to the business of Watermelon. My dad grew all of the watermelon for our festival (The U.S. Watermelon Speed Eating and Seed Spitting Championships), I cooked the pulled pork that the organizers sold as a fundraiser for next years festival (We started with 43 lbs of pork and sold it all), I emceed the seed spitting and speed eating events. My son Andrew and I won the parent/child spitting contest (my dad wanted to team up with me, but I didn't think the arrangement would qualify under the "spirit" of the rule!). We cleaned everything up and I was home before 6:00pm.

We have a very active School Support Foundation in town. They have spent the last few years raising funds to improve facilities at the school. They have built a new football field, resurfaced the track, build new baseball and softball fields, as well as new practice fields. Next up is a theater for the High School. Last night I took a call from a representative of the foundation informing us we were the days winner in the raffle drawing. My wife and I won two tickets to the December 26th Green Bay Packers - New York Giants football game at Lambeau Field and a $75 gas card. SWEET! Gosh I love da Packerss!

Tonight was the first night of adult Bible study down at church and by the time I got home I felt so lousy I couldn't go. If I don't go to Bible study, I have to be feeling mighty low.

Tomorrow night my oldest has a football game. Luckily it is at home, so not a lot of driving.

I am love love loving our TempurPedic bed.

I love driving our new van.

I am still as high as a kite about our finish at the BBQ contest we were in.

Other than that, not much happening.

Oh, I did have a great idea for a recipe that I am going to have to try. If I ever get around to doing it, I'll post about it here.

Mom comes through with unexpected SCORES!

SO my mom calls this weekend while out and about hitting the local garage sales. Says she found a couple of cast iron skillets and wanted to know if I was interested in them.

(Now, just so you know, I'm not just a BBQ fanatic, but I enjoy all types of outdoor cooking. I have accumulated quite a bit of cast iron for myself so I don't have to use the spendy inside kitchen stuff when cooking on the grill)

She said one was a Griswold, and one was a Wagner.

I asked "How much?" and she said "Four bucks each."

DUH!!

YES I WANT THEM!

She dropped them off and said she had seen a folding camp table at another sale, and would I be interested in that? (I have learned that when you cook outside, you can never have too many folding tables.)

"How much was it?" I asked.

"Five bucks" she replies.

DUH!!

So she went back and got it too! When I went to pay her she would take nothing. So quite the scores without even trying. Sweet.

I have a bunch of pieces that need to be cleaned and seasoned. Now that it's a little cooler I'll throw them in the oven and do a self clean. Works great for getting rid of all the old gunk.

Now if I only had a decent place to hang and display them.

Competition BBQ is a lot of work...

It's Labor day, so of course I labored.

I spent Saturday getting 80 lbs of pork prepared and on the smokers for next weekends hometown festival. I was able to get all of the pork on two of my WSMs so I had less cookers to tend. After getting that going, I mowed the lawn.

I keep two of my WSMs outside for everyday cooking, and two are stored in the garage and only get used when I need more than two cookers, which is rare. The two that get stored inside I like to make sure are really clean when put away, especially since they were used at last weekends comp.

It's surprising how much work it takes to get them all cleaned up. We got the last one done today and once it's dry it'll get stored.

My dad came over after worship yesterday and we pulled the butts for next week. The butts had been in a cooler for 8 hours or so, and were still almost too hot to pull. Some heavy rubber gloves made that task easier. It sure went fast with two sets of hands pulling. We packaged all of the pulled pork into 4 lb bags and vacu-sucked it. Yield on 80+ lbs of raw butts was 43 lbs, so just over 50%. It was gooood pork, too!

Then of course there was more clean-up. Wash the tables. Wash the bus tubs. Wash the gloves. Wash the vacu-seal. Wash the scale. Wash wash wash.

I'm glad it's finally done, and I can relax tonight.